Spell List
Spells
Spells are learned Maneuvers for Spellweavers. Each spell defines a specific magical effect with known behaviors. Like all Maneuvers, spells are limited by their governing Role's rank and add their own rank to the caster's Effective Level when casting.
Duration
Spells can operate at different levels of persistence depending on how they're cast and what the situation demands:
Instant effects perform their function and end immediately. A Light spell cast as a blinding flash attack works this way.
Trivial Persistence effects don't require rolls, and last until they naturally fade. A gentle Light spell for examining a room might last until the caster leaves the area, falls asleep, or dismisses it.
Concentration/Maintenance is usually the default. The caster actively maintains the spell by devoting attention to it. This allows the caster to make opposition rolls with it but maintain an effect in between — but prevents the caster from taking other actions without splitting their rolls.
Wagered Persistence dedicates EL points when casting, creating an effect that persists independently using the dedicated EL. This typically lasts for the scene, though longer durations may be possible with GM permission.
Enchantment creates "permanent" magical effects with extensive rituals and Karma expenditure, with similar costs to Role and Maneuver advancement.
Difficulty
Most basic spells are rolled directly against the target's resistance without requiring a separate casting roll, but some spells have special features that make them more inherently Difficult, requiring a separate roll to cast successfully. This is a free action; the difficulty of the spell tries to cause it to destabilize and fail, and the caster resists. If they are successful, they may proceed with their casting action normally. If not, the spell fails and is lost until they bind it again.
Difficult spells typically have one or more Traits that make them unusually powerful. For each Trait that makes the spell more useful and dangerous such as Insidious, Area Blanket, or Contagious, add one to the spell difficulty EL. Each limiting Trait (Stationary, Delayed, Constrained, etc) subtracts one, to a minimum of zero. When you successfully cast a Difficult spell, the difficulty EL becomes typically points of Inexorable effect that bypass normal resistance, while any effect beyond that can still be resisted normally.
Creating Spells
Spells are simple. Decide what they do, define it with a brief description, and identify any relevant Traits as required or forbidden. All others are generally considered optional if they make sense. Most Traits are optional for most spells, meaning the caster can apply them to modify the spell difficulty and features at casting time, though individual spells can alter this.
Groups can also customize their world by setting certain Traits as always required or forbidden. If all spells are always Vancian and Immutable, then they can also have two positive Traits for free, changing the baseline of power at the cost of no recasting.
Example Spells
Light
Creates magical illumination at the targeted point. Effect cancels visibility penalties from Darkness but diminishes by distance from source. Can be cast on objects to move with them. If used as an attack, causes Glare or Blinded Hindrances.
"The wizard's light blazed forth, bright as noon sun in the depths of the cavern."
Tanglebones (Entangle, Grasping Ghosts)
Required: Insidious
Apply Effect as movement Hindrances. If total effect exceeds target's Level, they're not Down, but are still Staggered with Paralysis.
"He spoke a curse, and my limbs failed me; I stumbled to the earth and could not rise."
Narkos
Required: Insidious, Subtle
Apply Effect as Drowsy Complications. Bypasses armor but can be resisted with supernatural abilities.
"A sprinkle of dust and softly murmured words struck my guards with waves of fatigue such that one passed out entirely."
BaleFire
Required: Insidious, Subtle, Selective (Supernatural Only)
Channels power through the caster's aura to strike supernatural targets. Has no effect whatsoever on mundane mortals — they cannot even perceive it. Fully effective against spirits, possessed beings, and anyone currently wielding supernatural power.
"He smote the flaming sword from my hand with a shouted curse, but left me untouched."
Fax Iacta (Wizard's Torch)
Manifests a blue-green flame in the caster's palm that provides light and heat without burning the caster's flesh, though flames it starts on other things give no such immunity.
"He spoke a terrible ghost-flame into being and tossed it above the camp so we could see what carnage the wolves had wrought."
Thorn Dart (Druid's Wrath, Rose's Revenge)
Required: Poison(Delayed, Insidious, Ablative)
Launch sharp thorns coated with toxin as Harm. Caster may voluntarily increase the difficulty to strengthen the poison — initial hit is subject to armor, but if that does any damage the poison effect thereafter is not. The poison stays in the target's system and continues to attack at its rating each exchange until it has rolled its rating in effect, whether resisted or not.
"A Novice might persuade a milkmaid to extract a worrisome splinter, but ArchDruid Berill struck down forty mercenaries with a single casting — most died foaming at the mouth."
Poison Cloud
Required: Insidious, Blanket Effect
Creates a stationary cloud of poisonous vapor.
"The green mist settled over the battlefield, and strong men fell choking in armor that offered no protection."
Might
Required: Subtle, Status
Apply effect to Create a Boost of Strength.
"The old man lifted the fallen tree from the child as if he were ten lumberjacks."
Wards
Required: Selective (Supernatural)
Creates a barrier on the target that resists against all supernatural effects, reducing the power of spells, spirits, and other constructs. Impervious to astral or ethereal mortals, who must defeat and destroy it to pass.
"The shimmering wall turned aside the demon's flames as the heated air washed over me."
Stone Shape
Manipulates existing stone within range. Can create spikes for attacks, barriers for defense, or utility effects like handholds or concealment.
"He coaxed a new bridge across; when the last of us stepped off, he let it crumble to dust."
Beguile
Required: Subtle, Insidious, Status
Influences the target's emotions and judgment as mental Hindrance that only biases the target toward the caster's requests. Completely out of character behavior immediately gives a free resistance with a bonus based on how odd it would be, and can break the spell entirely. A Hindrance greater than their base Level makes them so smitten with the caster's every idea that they won't even roll to resist unless the action is drastically out of character. The target will go out of their way to justify their actions as reasonable.
"Though I knew she was my enemy, her words seemed purest wisdom, and I found myself nodding in grudging agreement."
Phantasmal Veil
Required: Subtle
Influences the target's perceptions. This is a Glamour, so it cannot alter the physical world other than through a target's perceptions, but within that thematic limitation can be used like any other spell. A phantasmal fog can Hinder vision; an illusory arrow can only cause Complications, but the target won't know until they vanish. In all cases, effect and resistance determine the final outcome.
"He vanished from my sight, though I still could catch glimpses and hear his movements."
Scry
Required: Insidious, Subtle, Persistent, Guidable, Blanket(target area)
Special: This spell may require a series of rolls to seek the target in Astral space.
Creates an ethereal sensor and grants the caster the ability to detach their astral self to seek out a target through the Borderlands, towing the sensor with them. If they find the target, they can leave the sensor and return to their body, and then use the sensor to see and hear normally at the target location.
"Through crystal ball and mystic sight, she watched the enemy's council from miles away."
Spirit Walk
Required: This spell requires a series of rolls to seek the target in Astral space.
The caster transforms themselves bodily into an etheric form in the Borderlands. The transformation is unstable and will only last a few moments, minutes at most, but in that time they can fly at the speed of thought along the currents and ley lines of that realm. If they are able to locate their intended location they can release the transformation and appear at that site, but any failure may drop them elsewhere and lose the spell.
"Between one heartbeat and the next, the wizard vanished from the tower and appeared beside us in the courtyard below."